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Lowell life

When John surprised me with a trip to Bisbee, he had another surprise waiting for me around the corner.

Literally.

You see, if you keep driving through Bisbee...

you'll see a mining operation....

then you'll go through a tunnel...

and an old town appears out of nowhere.

The town of Lowell.

"Lowell was at one time a sizable mining town located just to the southeast of Old Bisbee. The majority of the original townsite was consumed by the excavation of the Lavender Pit mine during the 1950s. All that is left today is a small portion of Erie Street, along with Evergreen Cemetery, Saginaw subdivision and Lowell Middle School. These days Lowell is considered by most of the local residents to be more of a place name than an actual community." via Western Mining History

It's a sad story, but fascinating at the same time.

You really feel as though you've stepped back in time, but all the residents vanished.

Well, except for some random tourists and bikers.

Oh and this good looking guy ;)

All the cars on the street are sitting there like someone just abandoned them.

I half expected Rod Serling to walk out.

Or perhaps Barney Fife.

Of course, you know I'd be happy as a little clam living there.

It just needs a little clean-up ;)

Going farther out, there's a neighborhood, where there's some rather large old homes overlooking some much smaller ones.

I'm guessing they're the ones that made all the dough (aka money) at the mines.

After that it was time to head home, back through Bisbee.

What a wonderful, quirky place :)

Oh and lastly, here's a picture of me and my son, Alex, while he was here visiting this past weekend.

Thank you for all the sweet words about his visit.

We had a great time :)

xo

rue

PS

Edited to add: The cars are owned by a man that owns a few of the buildings. The town is a project for him and some of his friends and they're fixing it up to be a sort of museum. There's only one business (that I know of) and it's a breakfast place. But yes, it's basically abandoned.

35 comments:

How neat! I have never been to Lowell! And I love those huge old houses! Wow! That's really weird about the old vehicles. Did people drive them there for the weekend, or are they actually abandoned there? I see you stopped for pie at Rock Springs. A few weeks ago we went up to the snow and picked up a berry one on the way down. xoxo Su

A modern day ghost town! I find those to be so fascinating - I always want to know why the people up and left. Even leaving their cars! And your son looks like he was having a great visit. So wonderful that you got to spend some fun times with him.

What an interesting place Rue! I was thinking as I was reading your post it sounded like something out of Twilight Zone. I was wondering about the cars so I was glad to read your postscript about them. I certainly would love to live there too..Lovely photo of you and your Alex!Have a good week.Robin

Very interesting and good luck to the people who want to restore the buildings. I love your road trips in Arizona and it so much more enjoyable with another explorer. The berry pies are delicious! Happy pic with your son:).Kathleen in Az

Bisbee is one of my favorite places to visit in Arizona...the Copper Queen Hotel is an awesome place to stay. I take it you didn't do the mine tour? Lowell is like going back almost a hundred years in time.Have a wonderful week.

Your smiles, say it all. You loved having your son around, and he loved spending time with his momma! Cool places that you got to visit. It would be a little strange seeing Lowell, where it's basically a ghost town. I think that it's pretty awesome that someone has an interest in seeing it preserved. We used to have a Sprouse Reitz in our town, when I was a kid. I always saved my money from babysitting and would buy myself some "Babe" perfume, and some little black canvas Mary Jane shoes. The shoes cost a mere $3.00.The good ol' days **smile**.

This looks like a town American Pickers would feature. Pretty cool. Eery, too, without people. Kind of an apocalyptic feel. Glad you were able to spend time with Alex. Looks like you two had fun. Hugs, Nancy

What a fascinating little town! And also a little creepy, with those abandoned cars all around. I hope the guy that owns some of the cars, etc indeed makes this more of an outdoor museum. Love the photo of you and your son. He sure does look like you!

I love your "edited" paragraph. I had all those questions swirling around in my head by the time I got to the bottom of your post. You just saved me a trip to Wikipedia! ;) Interesting place. Cool...and kind of creepy. The cars are awesome. You are your son are adorable. Looks like you had a fun visit!! xo

As many times as I have been to AZ, I never even heard of Bisbee, let alone see it until you wrote this. My parents lived in the Phoenix area and other than going to Nogales one time, we usually headed north or west on our adventures. Thanks for enlightening me!

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